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Monday, July 25, 2011

Let us, my dear reader, courageously and cheerfully do all, undertake all, sacrifice all that we may gain the ineffable happiness of heaven, for we never can purchase heaven at too dear a price. Let us not be disheartened at the difficulties on our road, for, after all, it is not so difficult to merit heaven.  Were we to do for heaven half as much as people do to earn a living, to acquire a little wealth, power or fame, or to enjoy life, we would be sure of securing a high place among the saints. All we have to do to gain heaven is to keep the commandments of God and of His Church, to bear our little crosses, to discharge the obligations of our state of life, to overcome temptation ; and although this is above our natural strength, we nevertheless can count on the grace of God, if we pray earnestly for it, and with God's help everything will become coniparatively easy, for, as St. Paul says: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me " (Phil. iv. 13).

Earnest, persistent prayer will secure heaven to us. I now, dear reader, address to you the words the mother of the Maccabees addressed to her youngest son, a mere boy, when he was about to be tortured to death, as his six brothers had been before him: "My son, I beg thee to look up to heaven." Look up to heaven every day, especially in time of trial and temptation. Heaven is well worth every suffering and every sacrifice and every combat required of us, and even a thousand times more! Life is short; its trials, its sufferings, its labors, its combats, its crosses also are short and temporary; but heaven and its joys are inconceivable, satisfying every desire of the heart and never-ending! "Our present light affliction which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure" (2 Cor. iv. 17).
May God in His mercy grant this happy end to the writer of this work and on to all those whose eyes and heart it may resound.

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